What’s going on between Russia, US and Afghanistan?

What are we to make of the reports that have surfaced in the past few days that Russian military intelligence agents were offering money to Taliban fighters to kill US and possibly other Western service personnel? How true are these reports? Can they be substantiated? And what is their real significance?

For a start, we have a triple denial from all of the main parties involved. The Russian government has dismissed the story out of hand. So too have the Taliban.

And US President Donald Trump has vehemently denied any knowledge of the matter – with White House sources telling the US press that the subject never reached as high as the president or vice-president because there was no consensus in the intelligence community about the veracity of the reports.

However, serious US news outlets are carrying a range of reports quoting a variety of sources, suggesting that an intelligence assessment that Russian agents were offering bounties to the Taliban for the killing of US or coalition troops had been around since March; that significant amounts of cash had been seized in US raids; and that some US personnel may indeed have been killed as a result.

These sources also indicate that the intelligence assessment was indeed briefed at the highest levels, including mention at the president’s own daily intelligence briefing.

Mr Trump’s critics – not least the Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden – have seized upon these reports to highlight once again their view that Mr Trump is not up to defending US interests.

But perhaps more interestingly, even some key Republicans are raising questions – Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming asking the inevitable question of who did know about the assessment and when did they know it?

Payback?

Why, though, might Russia promote such action? Potentially, it has multiple motives.

Russia maintains close links with the Taliba